Study Questions:

What is the relationship between the incidence of cardiovascular death (CVD) and the comprehensive panel of individual mean and pulsatile components of blood pressure derived from an analysis of measured central aortic pressure and flow?

Conclusions:

These results indicate that the forward pressure wave (a measure of proximal aortic geometry and stiffness) component of blood pressure and pulsatile load, rather than mean arterial pressure, is the individual component of blood pressure that is most closely associated with first-onset major CVD events in this cohort.

Perspective:

This study supports the need to better define the effects of existing therapeutic agents on aortic function and forward pressure wave amplitude and its overall clinical value at reducing CVD.